Last Days

Tuesday, July 19^th

From 31,000 feet up. :)

This is a bit of a bittersweet day. It's time to go home. The last 4 days have flown by, having a great time with Walter and Ardis who were able to fly in from London. It was great seeing them again. It's been a good year and a half since the last time. I do hope to catch up with them when they get back to the states in December.

Not sure where I stopped off the last time as good Internet access has been a continuing problem this trip. As I've said before, I usually write these blogs in the evening and if the B&B, or hotel doesn't have decent connections, I'm limited to just checking emails and a short post on Facebook, if that.

Not sure if I mentioned we took a drive through the Mountains of Mourne. Always a great drive, especially on a sunny day, which we had. Along some of the Antrim Coast, and up to Carrickfergus. Belfast was a quick run through as we always seemed to be sidetracked by little off the beaten path castles and ruins. But that's what makes the trip all the more interesting.

We arrived in Clontarf, just to the north side of Dublin about 5:00 on Friday. We had plans to get to Howth and Howth Head that day, but as I've said before time got away from us. We found an unmarked court tomb just past a “view point” that we thought was just off the road. Turns out it was about 20 minutes up a steep narrow hill (of course, what great view in Ireland isn't up a steep narrow road?). I mistakenly missed the turn off for the view point and decided to find a decent point to turn around on this road. Not much further was a small pull out and Ballymacdermot's Court Tomb. It was signposted at the tomb, but no where else. Truly an amazing sight. They obviously picked this spot for the view also, at the other side of the hill we had climbed. Just beautiful. After a return to Berwyn “view” and looks over Dundalk, we headed back to the motorway and off again, until we saw the signpost for Monastiere Boice.

I've been to this site before, but it has one of the most incredible high crosses in Ireland. The carvings in the stone are so deep that they have lasted all these years and are still pretty clear. The round tower at the site is 110 feet tall, the highest round tower still standing, I was told, except it has lost it's top. At least 15-20 of the bottom of it is now buried underground as the first opening that should be that high off the ground is only about 6 feet up. There are stairs to walk up and look in.

We did a little of our now famous, “getting lost and seeing more of the country” before we made it back to the motorway. And on to Clontarf.

Early on in the planning of the trip we though it might be nice to treat ourselves to something special our last night out on the road. We booked the Clontarf Castle Hotel. The concierge, Eric, was spectacular with all his help and humor. He could not do enough for us. Yes, this was a nice, treat, but as in all nice things, the special “Internet on the flat screen TV” would not work for me. I'm staring to feel it might be me! Eric did offer his computer at his desk for me to use, but I just didn't feel it would be right to sit and visit on Facebook at his desk.

The Knight's Bar and interior of the hotel were done in a stately motif and the dinner that came with our room and bottle of wine followed suit. I wish we could have spent more time there. Breakfast the next morning topped it all off.

On Friday we had to turn in the car, but not until the afternoon, so we decided to catch up on having missed Howth Harbour and Howth Head. Unfortunately the cloud layer was not very cooperative when we arrived at Howth Head. We were able to look across to Dublin, Ireland's Eye and Dublin Harbour for about 2 minutes when the clouds rolled over the entire scene, including where we were standing. We headed down the hill to Howth Harbour below the clouds and took pictures and walked along the harbour for a bit. Then off to Thrifty/Dollar to return the car and make our way to City Center.

We were all settled at the Mercantile and took a walk to the tourist office waiting for Ardis and Walter. When they arrived we headed out for some lunch downstairs at the Mercantile lunch carvery. I guess if you get there early the choices are better and the meat is not all dried out. Not one of our great meals.

We walked around some but thanks to Eric at the Clontarf, he had recommenced a musical show in Howth that night at the Abbey Tavern. So we piled in a taxi and off we went. The show was good, more local than Trad on the Prom, but still good. By the time we got back we all were tired from the travel, so planned a full day with a bus tour out to Powerscourt on Saturday. I do have to say that these one day bus trips are a great way to go when in Dublin. Saturday was Powerscourt, Bray, Dun Laoghaire, and Glendalough, along with a few more sites pointed out as we traveled. The weather started out just overcast, but by the time we got to Glendalough, it was pouring. Typical Irish summer weather. By the time we got to the Wicklow pass it was clear, but very windy and cold. We had a great tour guide full of information.

Sunday was the hop on hop off tour of Dublin. Again the day was overcast, and did rain some, but for the most part, it was fine. I've noticed that they have extended the passes for this tour to 2 days. I was so glad to see that, even thoughtwe only had the one day. There just is no way to see even most of the sites on the tour in one day. We did get to Trinity College, Merrion Park, Dublin Castle, Guinness Warehouse, and Kilmainham Gaol. It did take a good hour to ride the tour around once so we could make some decisions for the day. I think the most time was spend at the Guinness Warehouse and Kilmainham Gaol. The but let us off near the end of the day right in front of the Arlington Hotel, so we took the opportunity to have a drink and book the dinner and music show for that night.

With everything I had heard about this show, I was a little disappointed. Trad on the Prom was a very professionally put together show. This was more like 3 musicians taking requests from the audience to make up their set list, then 5 dances doing mostly hard shoe for a bit. The speakers were not very good and the bus crowd that they brought it talked through the entire performance, even while they were eating dinner. I much preferred the Abbey Tavern to the Arlington Hotel.

We walked back to our hotel over the Ha' Penny Bridge and through Temple Bar. Ardis and Walter would be leaving early the next morning, so we said our goodbyes, and headed off to bed.

Monday Rita and I headed off on another bus tour to New Grange. This also went to Monastiere Boice again, but we didn't mind. With my knees bothering me a bit I stayed back at the visitor center at New Grange as I've been there before. Rita headed off to the megalithic tomb and as Ireland is, it started to rain. In between showers and breaks she was able to spend some time enjoying the site with the others who braved the weather. Our tour guide, Collin, had a lot to share about the Dublin area as we left town and headed out for the day and was great about pointing out sites along the way that we might not have known about. He did share that most of the barley fields we saw were almost ready to harvest and the lot of it would be going to Guinness for brewing. Almost all the barley grown in the fields around Dublin is used for that.

So that brings me to our very early day today and our trip home. I'll post this as soon as I have some Internet, and follow up with ending comments when I get back on a regular sleep schedule!